Defence Science and Technology Laboratory

About: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory is a government organization based out in Salisbury, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Burkholderia pseudomallei & Francisella tularensis. The organization has 926 authors who have published 1242 publications receiving 30091 citations. The organization is also known as: Dstl & [dstl].

Development of space weather reasonable worst-case scenarios for the UK National Risk Assessment

Abstract: Severe space weather was identified as a risk to the UK in 2010 as part of a wider review of natural hazards triggered by the societal disruption caused by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in April of that year To support further risk assessment by government officials, and at their request, we developed a set of reasonable worst-case scenarios and first published them as a technical report in 2012 (current version published in 2020) Each scenario focused on a space weather environment that could disrupt a particular national infrastructure such as electric power or satellites, thus enabling officials to explore the resilience of that infrastructure against severe space weather through discussions with relevant experts from other parts of government and with the operators of that infrastructure This approach also encouraged us to focus on the environmental features that are key to generating adverse impacts In this paper, we outline the scientific evidence that we have used to develop these scenarios, and the refinements made to them as new evidence emerged We show how these scenarios are also considered as an ensemble so that government officials can prepare for a severe space weather event, during which many or all of the different scenarios will materialise Finally, we note that this ensemble also needs to include insights into how public behaviour will play out during a severe space weather event and hence the importance of providing robust, evidence-based information on space weather and its adverse impacts

Fabrication of embedded microfluidic channels in low temperature co-fired ceramic technology using laser machining and progressive lamination

Abstract: This paper describes the application of laser micromachining techniques for the fabrication of microfluidic channels in low temperature co-fired ceramic, LTCC, technology. It is shown that embedded cavities can be successfully realised by employing a recently proposed progressive lamination process with no additional fugitive material. Various microfluidic structures have been fabricated and X-ray imaging has been used to assess the quality of the embedded channels after firing. The problem of achieving accurate alignment between LTCC layers is addressed such that deeper channels, spanning more than one layer, can be fabricated using a pre-lamination technique. A number of possible applications for the presented microfluidic structures are discussed and an H-filter particle separator in LTCC is demonstrated.

Surface-Enhanced, Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SESORS) in Tissue Analogues.

Abstract: Surface-enhanced, spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SESORS) combines the remarkable enhancements in sensitivity afforded by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with the non-invasive, subsurface sampling capabilities of spatially offset Raman spectroscopy. Taken together, these techniques show great promise for in vivo Raman measurements. Herein, we present a step forward for this technique, demonstrating SESORS through tissue analogues of six known and varied thicknesses, with a large number of distinct spatial offsets, in a backscattering optical geometry. This is accomplished by spin-coating SERS-active nanoparticles (NPs) on glass slides and monitoring the relative spectral contribution from the NPs and tissue sections, respectively, as a function of both the tissue thickness and the spatial offset of the collection probe. The results show that SESORS outperforms SERS alone for this purpose, the NP signal can be attained at tissue thicknesses of >6.75 mm, and greater tissue thicknesses require greater spatial offsets to maximize the NP signal, all with an optical geometry optimized for utility. This demonstration represents a step forward toward the implementation of SESORS for non-invasive, in vivo analysis.